Navy victuallers and the rise of Cheshire cheese

Abstract

In the 1990s Charles Foster claimed that a commercial Cheshire cheese trade began in 1650, the year when the first coastwise cargo from Chester was recorded in the London port books. One purpose of this research note is to embellish Foster's claim by suggesting that an even greater influence on this trade was the adoption from the early 1840s by England's state-appointed victuallers of Cheshire cheese as one of their standard commodities. They then supplied it in bulk to the navy and also to army garrisons in theatres of war such as Ireland and Scotland. The victualler who played the principal role in this provisioning from the 1640s to the 1670s was Denis Gauden. His career is followed, and his final downfall, which was caused by inadequate and chaotic government financial systems.